Carson City Mint
branch mint in Nevada, United States of America
The Carson City Mint was a branch of the United States Mint in Carson City, Nevada. It primarily minted silver coins; however, it also minted gold coins, with a total face value in dollars nearly equal to that of its silver coins. Built at the peak of the silver boom conveniently near local silver mines, 50 issues of silver coins and 57 issues of gold coins minted here between 1870 and 1893 bore the "CC" mint mark. The facility minted coins in 21 (non-consecutive) years.
The Carson City Mint was created in 1863 but was not put into operation until 1870. It ran until 1885, went on a hiatus, and resumed operations in 1889, after which it ran until 1893, when it closed permanently. It is now the Nevada State Museum, Carson City. Coins struck here, especially Morgan dollars, are generally rare and command a high premium among collectors.
History
The American Civil War had reduced the federal government's mintage capacity, and new facilities were needed to replace those lost in the south. The mint was established in Carson City to facilitate the manufacture of silver coins from silver in the Comstock Lode, much as the San Francisco Mint was established to facilitate minting gold coins from the gold of the California gold rush.
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This entry incorporates text from “Carson City Mint” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.